Do I Really Want To…

Jump into the Piper/Taylor/Bell controversy with both feet?

No… not really…

But here I go, alienating everybody I know from both sides again… probably…

What the heck? It’s Wednesday morning… as good an excuse as any, I suppose…

Just a few minutes ago I read an article that I liked, by Jason Boyett, regarding this subject. I am going to list the blog link below. I did not agree with 100% of what was said (and I am going to try to outline a little of that here), so please don’t send me messages about how I’m going to the hell I don’t believe in, because #1 I didn’t say that I don’t believe that hell exists and #2 I’m not going there unless God says I’m going there, so it doesn’t really matter what you think… about that… To read the article, click here.

Now, I have to admit, I didn’t even know who Justin Taylor was until I started reading this morning. Apparently, he works for Crossway Publishing and is a respected blogger in the conservative Christian world. That’s what I gathered anyway. I went looking for his blog and found these guidelines for people who wish to make comments:

“Comments Policy

I welcome blog comments, although they are often notorious for unfruitful and uncharitable discussions.

I hope this can be a place where we “seek understanding” before critiquing, where we are quick to listen and slow to speak, where we judge others charitably not critically, where we encourage and build up each other rather than tearing down and destroying each other.

I would encourage commenters to consider carefully the following commands and principles regarding our speech:

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6).

“By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:37).

“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10).

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29).

Speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15, 25).

“If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless” (James 1:26).”

(http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/about/)

These are very biblical guidelines, and let me say here that anything I am about to write is not meant to be judgmental toward anyone involved in this controversy. It is only meant to be thought provoking…

Now in the article I mentioned above, Justin Taylor is quoted as saying (about Rob Bell), “It is unspeakably sad when those called to be ministers of the Word distort the gospel and deceive the people of God with false doctrine.”

I agree… completely…

But not about Rob Bell (at least not today).

The complete post can be found here.

Then John Piper (I guess he’s another highly respected pastor I’ve never heard of) goes on to link to Taylor’s post (which I thought was kind of innovative, since the post quoted Piper, himself) and then proclaims on Twitter, “Farewell, Rob Bell.”

Thus ensues a top 10 trending topic (and since I am also completely uncultured in the Twitter realm, I don’t understand this in its entirety, but I guess it means a lot of people are talking about this).

Wow…

Much of what Boyett goes on to say, I agree with completely. His thoughts on this controversy are pretty good. Here is where I digress…

I’m not going to be as gracious as he was about judging a book by its cover… publisher’s copy… whatever… I really can’t say what I think about the book until I’ve read it, and I don’t think it makes sense for anyone else to do that, either. I would say that I am hopeful that once people like Piper and Taylor read the book they will be embarrassed by their behavior… offer sincere apologies… and retract their comments.

I want to be hopeful, because I want to believe that what Bell wrote is not a stamp of approval on Universalism but rather a work that takes Biblical perspective and life experiences and exposes the myths surrounding a hell that modern Christianity has created. I did not just say that I do not believe hell exists! Please… please get that. But I do believe that it is quite possible that modern Christianity has twisted hell into something it is not, therefore, distorting the gospel and deceiving the people… hmmm…

I want to be hopeful, but I am not… and it’s not because I don’t think that’s what Bell has done (remember… the book isn’t even out yet!) The reason I am not hopeful is because in my own experience I have found that people who hold to the kind of Christianity that Piper and Taylor apparently hold to are not going to read this book… not really. They are going to get offended by chapter two and put it down… or they are going to scan… or they might even read every last word, but they are not going to understand it!

The problem with people who are so entrenched in their own theology is that they can never look at anything from a different perspective… even if their perspective is wrong… even if they know their perspective is wrong… Which; I’m not saying that it is or that they do. I would venture to say that Piper and Taylor would tell you that they maintain a Biblical perspective. That’s great! So do I! But the truth about Biblical perspective is that it requires interpretation (and that article I’ve “mentioned” three times now does a great job of summing up what that might mean)…

Although I agree with Boyett’s thoughts and frustrations regarding Biblical interpretation; I have to digress slightly again at this point. He states, “In the New Testament, Jesus talks about hell a lot, but sometimes in ways that a reasonable person could interpret metaphorically.” Actually, I don’t think that Jesus talks about hell “a lot”. Further, you can’t just take the translated English, count the 14 references to hell (in the NIV, 1984 version) and come to a reasonable conclusion that everyone who doesn’t agree with you is going to burn there eternally. You just can’t.

As a sidenote, 12 of those 14 references appear in the gospels.

Six are in regard to amputating body parts that cause you to sin (Matthew 5 and 18, Mark 9), and I have yet to meet someone who has done this. Even those who take a very literal view of Scripture draw the line somewhere, huh? Well… that or their hands, feet, and eyes have never caused them to sin…

Two of the remaining references are in the passage regarding the “seven woes” (Matthew 23) that Jesus directs to the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law, and another addresses the fate of false teachers (II Peter 2).

Two are directed to Jesus’ disciples (Matthew 10, Luke 12).

Two more concern our words and their consequences (Matthew 5, James 3).

Any way I look at this, it seems that those of us who claim to be Christians… who claim to be disciples… are the ones who should heed these words. And before anybody jumps in and says, “Yeah… that’s exactly what we’re saying to Rob Bell!”… perhaps we should examine ourselves first?

That’s 13. If there is one passage that causes me to take pause and consider the validity of an Orthodox Christian perspective on hell, it is Luke 16:16-31. It has baffled me for a very long time that this is the singular account that I can find of a person being sent to hell. But even here, there is no reference to faith… or even to works. Here we read that the rich man is suffering in hell, because he has already received his good things on earth, while Lazarus is with Abraham, because he suffered in his life on Earth. Further, it should be noted, that at this point, Jesus has not yet died. At this time, there was no one who could cross over the chasm from hell to where Lazarus and Abraham were. But Jesus did. I’m not sure how that changes the story, or if it does. It’s just something to consider. At any rate, Luke 16 does, indeed, give way to a possible traditional/conservative view of hell.

And you know… this really wasn’t supposed to turn into a monologue on the Scriptures of hell. Really… it wasn’t. And in fact, looking back at this I don’t really want to post it, but if I don’t I will have wasted my entire Wednesday morning, so I guess it’s going up…

My point was…

There is controversy.

There is controversy in the church.

Somebody is probably right.

And somebody is probably wrong.

Maybe.

If you’re right, you’d sure… well, you’d better be right.

I believe in mercy and grace. I believe in justice, too.

A couple of days ago, I had a profound thought. It doesn’t happen all that often, so I’m going with it. Somehow, I think it relates to this topic, and I think that’s why I had it to begin with. I am sure it relates to a lot of other topics, too, but for now I need to let those rest or I really will find myself in a tricky situation, and I really won’t get anything else accomplished today…

I have great respect for Rob Bell. I will read his book when it comes out. I will probably agree with much of it. I will probably hate some of it. And I might even agree with some of what I hate. There will be points to argue, I’m sure, but I will never question Rob’s Christianity… even if the whole book goes against everything I believe in. That’s just not my job. This in combination with the words that hit me like a train the other day got me to thinking about Rob’s influence… which got me to thinking about my own. Surely, there will be more to come on this…

But now for my thought:

You can spend your whole life trying to convince a few people who aren’t even listening to you that what they’re doing is wrong, or you can spend your whole life trying to teach the people within your circle of influence how to live rightly.

And if everyone in your circle of influence is perfect, then you’re useless…

Lisa

PS On the off chance that any of my readers are planning a Nooma burning ceremony, would you please just drop them off at my back door, instead?